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Artwork Description / Detail

This work was painted a few days before German bombing raids destroyed the yard in 1941. Devonport is a part of the Plymouth conurbation, an historically important naval port on the South Devon coast. From the natural naval fleets, from medieval times onwards. Through the good offices of his friend, Admiral John Moore, Flint gained access on Sundays to the old Dockyard and painted this work, regarded by the RWS as his Diploma work, although by then he was well into his twenty-year presidency of the august body.

The work is refreshingly unusual in Flint’s oeuvre. It is not generally known that he was a landscape and architectural painter of consummate skill; for what have been described as his ‘breastscapes’ dominate the popular conception of his work. If we look at the architectural settings for such pictures as the “Spanish” confections, we can begin to understand how such a majestic work could have come from the hand of this artist.

The dimensions of the watercolour are large, and the conception one of grandeur. The handling of the brush is breathtaking in its economy and purpose. Where one broad brush-stroke will do, only one brushstroke is used. When more detailed working is necessary, this is performed without waste. Flint has freely depicted the great timbers of this structure as if they were the piers and vaulting of a cathedral. The great vault is, on close inspection, a seeming mish-mash of vigorous sweeps of brown washes, painted wet-in-wet and wet on dry. Standing away from the picture, every timber falls into place and the architectural unity is preserved. The height of the roof is emphasised by angular, dark brushstrokes. Along the right-hand side of the dock and in the middle distance, much greater detail is unfolded and there are some brilliant renditions of figures and machinery, indicated only with the merest dabs of paint.

The receding composition is aided by this variance of brushwork. The eye is led towards the light beyond the shed, not only through perspectival recession, but also along a path from free handling to considered detail and some descriptive scratching out if minute highlights. Of all the works of our century in the RWS Collection, this must be one of the most satisfying. Its monumentality and historical interest place it as a significant work of modern British art. Some of Flint’s drypoints should be included among his finest works, but this war drawing shows where his greatest talents lay.

It is a picture held in the highest academic regard by the RWS, as is clear from the following:

The handling of the brush is breathtaking in its economy and purpose. Flint has freely depicted the great timbers of this structure as if they were the piers and vaulting of a cathedral. The great vault is, on close inspection, seeming mish – mash of vigorous sweeps of brown washes, painted wet-in-wet and wet on dry.

Standing away from the picture, every timber falls into place and the architectural unity is preserved. The height of the roof is emphasised by angular, dark brush strokes. Along the right hand side of the dock and in the middle distance, much greater detail is unfolded and there are some brilliant renditions of figures and machinery, indicated only with the merest dabs of paint.

Of all the works of our century in the R.W. S. Collection, this must be one of the most satisfying. Its monumentality and historical interest place it as a significant work of modern British art.

M. Spender The Glory of Water Colour

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